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The People's Budget: A Progressive Path Forward FY 2019

President Trump and Congressional Republicans want Americans to believe that we must slash funding for vital cornerstones of our society, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to pay for their tax handout to corporations and the extremely wealthy. The Congressional Progressive Caucus knows that this is a false choice, and recognize a path forward for our country that will put workers and everyday families first.

The Fiscal Year 2019 Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget: A Progressive Path Forward, builds bridges of opportunity, starting with the most vulnerable communities. The People’s Budget creates millions of jobs and increases wages for those who continue to be on the sidelines of our economy. It invests in our neglected infrastructure, ends the systematic inequality in our tax system by making corporations pay their fair share, and stops the rising cost of prescription drugs. The People’s Budget provides a progressive pathway to building a strong economy so working families can prosper.

The People’s Budget takes a family first approach to budgeting. It cuts funding for the cruel immigration policies under the Trump Administration and adopts comprehensive immigration reform to strengthen our economy. The budget invests $1 trillion for universal childcare, increases access to SNAP benefits, and expands the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax credit.

Access to affordable health care remains one of our greatest challenges, especially in light of Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act. The People’s Budget supports immediate improvements to the ACA, provides $12 billion in funding for states to transition to a single payer system, and addresses the rising cost of prescription drugs.

In order to give everyday families, the future they deserve, we must close the tax loopholes that the Trump tax scam left in place and rewrite the rules of a rigged economy that puts the interests of billionaires and big corporations over everyday families. The People’s Budget protects Medicare's integrity and improves its long-term solvency, andensures that Veterans Affairs will not be privatized and receives the necessary funding so that our veterans can access the best care and full benefits they deserve.

The Trump agenda drastically cuts programs supporting working families, the environment and our health care, while giving massive tax cuts to big corporations and bloating the military budget beyond belief. The People’s Budget takes a very different path, reinvests in American families, and prioritizes funding for education, health care, jobs and clean air and water. The Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget: A Progressive Path Forward puts political and economic power back in the hands of the people.

Invest In America

Invests $2 trillion to transition to a 21st Century infrastructure to transform our water, transportation, and energy systems

Prioritizes “Made in America” policies across government agencies and contactors

Expands access to mental health care and treatments for opioid and heroin addiction

Repeals excise tax on high-priced health care plans for workers and replaces with public option

Fair Tax System for Working Families

Closes wasteful corporate tax loopholes that cost billions of dollars

Taxes Wall Street to fund Main Street

Ensures profits from investments are finally taxed at the same rate as income taxes

Raises revenue from the wealthiest few who can afford to pay more

Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit

Comprehensive and Just Immigration Reform

Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship and clearing the family- and employment-based immigration backlogs

Scales back exorbitant funding for immigration detention and enforcement, creating due process, fairness, and accountability in the system and eliminating the profit motive in immigration detention

Ends Family detention, prohibits family separation at our borders and provides funding for Family Case Management Programs.

Prohibits funding for construction of any border wall and any immigration policies which seek to ban people from entering the U.S. because of their religion or targeting individuals for exercising their First Amendment rights

Supports continued funding to sanctuary cities

Supports U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) mission to timely process immigration benefits in keeping with our history as a nation of immigrants

Justice and Fair Elections

Ensures the justice system is fair and effective for all Americans by increasing funding for voter protection and legal assistance programs

Rebuilds trust in the justice system by developing community oriented policing reforms

Protects American election systems from any interference and increases protections for voting rights by strengthening key election reforms

Funds public financing of campaigns to curb special interest influence in politics